Mar. 22, 2012 (China Knowledge) - The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said yesterday it has signed a supplementary currency swap agreement with the Bank of Mongolia to increase the size of a bilateral currency swap deal to RMB 10 billion from RMB 5 billion.

The central bank said in a statement that the supplementary currency swap agreement would help maintain the regional financial stability and promote bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.

In 2011, the trade value between China and Mongolia surged 84.3% year on year to US$6.33 billion, which accounted for 56% of the Mongolia's total foreign trade in the year. China has been Mongolia's the largest trade partner for 13 consecutive years.

China's imports from Mongolia rose 78.3% year on year to US$2.22 billion last year, and its imports from Mongolia grew 105.1% to US$1.96 billion.

Since late 2008, China has signed currency swap agreements worth RMB 1.3 trillion in total with 16 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, South Korea, Belarus and Argentina.